Gokarna - Part 3 - Trek to Yana Caves

If you have planned for 3-4 days stay in Gokarna, there are many places you can cover around Gokarna for a day’s tour like Mirjan Fort, Vibhooti Falls, Murdeshwar and Yana caves. 

Since I have already seen the first 3 spots, this time I planned to visit Yana caves, yet another spot marked in my bucket list 😊. 

Nestled in the heart of the Western Ghats, is a pilgrim center called “Yana” which famous for its unusual black rock formations.  In this blog, I will be taking you all along my journey to these magnificent caves. 

We started off from Gokarna at around 10:30 am. Total travel time from Gokarna to Yana caves is around 1 hour. You can take the NH leading to Sirsi, Kumta. After driving along this Yana-Karwar road, you will see a cross “Yana Cross” from here you need to take a left and drive straight along the Yana road. This drive is enthralling as you pass by dense forest amidst the lush greenery, streams passing by and the mountains around. 

And by the time you have completely immersed yourself in this journey you realize that you have reached the base point of Yana caves.  

We parked our vehicle here and there is a nominal parking fee of 50 Rupees. At the base camp you will find a shop where in you can buy water, juice, snacks which will help you when you return from trek also. 

Now starts the important part of the trip – the Hike. This hike was little tough for us since it had rained previous day whole night and the path was little slippery. 

At few places we even saw JKB vehicles towing off a huge tree which had fallen due to heavy rains. We had to climb over the logs and then cross which was little challenging. 

But after crossing this, the hike is little better and you can watch a small stream pass by along your trek. 

One important note, phone network will be nil here. So you can soak yourself into nature completely and enjoy natural healing therapy. 

At one point, I stood there just to absorb the serenity of the place, soothing jingles of the stream passing by, chirping of birds and dense foliage on both sides of your path.

This entire hike till the first set of steps  will take you around 30 minutes. If you are visiting this place during rains, please watch out for leeches. Ensure you have the right footwear or please carry salt/savlon liquid with you.  

The path to uphill is very well maintained by the forest department with wooden benches placed at frequent intervals, dustbins, and even interesting signboards to conserve nature. I really enjoyed reading them. 

The above signboard says - Do you want A/C or fan in lesser cost, then plant trees for around 2 years and see the change😊

After some time, we reached a spot from where we saw clearly carved out steps till the hill-top. 

We took a pit stop at this place to sip some water. There is also a Ganesha temple here. People can relax before they begin the next stage climb.

From here started our next stage of climb and this was pretty simple since the steps were cleared carved out and railings on both sides for support. 

After climbing some steps, we got a glimpse of the first giant rock which is the Mohini Shikhara and the second one on the hill-top is the Bhairaveshwara Shikhara. We were awestruck seeing this.  

Here goes the legend to give a background about this place – Demon King Bhasmasura was granted a boon by Lord Shiva that he could kill anyone by just placing his hand on their head. With this, the gods started worrying about the repercussions that would follow due to this. Bhasmasura would be even more powerful and unstoppable. So Lord Vishnu plans to trick him by transforming himself into a beautiful woman Mohini and challenges him for a dance competition. During the process, Mohini places her hand on her head and Bhasmasura follows this step without realizing the dire consequences. Due to this event, the entire cave turned black with the ashes of Bhasmasura. 

We clicked pictures of this rock from outside. There is also a path to enter the cave and exit from other side. But it was little slippery and dark when we saw it from outside. And also we decided to conserve our energy to explore the main cave on top. 

Few more steps from here and we reached the main cave – Bhairaveshwara Shikhara. 

You will find Lord Shiva temple at the base of the cave. You need to take off your footwear and visit the temple first. 

One unique thing that we noticed is the water dripping inside from the top of the cave. Hence please watch out your steps while taking darshan as it is slippery here. You will see beautiful Shiva Linga here. 

After darshan, there is a narrow pathway that leads to a set of steps leading to the top for you to explore the cave from inside. 

Once you reach the caves, as you lift up your head to see the magnificent black caves, you will be amazed to see how tall they are standing and sun's rays peeking through to ensure we get light inside the cave. This is an absolute delight to watch. 

We were told that you can walk inside the cave and from the other end reach down to the temple. This way you will be completing one parikrama. But unfortunately, the cave was closed on the other side. So we just clicked pictures and came down.

Once you are out of the cave, you can click a panoramic view of the entire surroundings from the steps of this cave. 

After coming down the cave steps, we just stood for a while to absorb the view in front of us.

Descending was easy as always. But while descending you will find two roads - one goes straight to take you towards Sirsi side trek path and the other one down will take you towards Kumta side trek path from where we had started. 

While descending we took our own pace so that we could enjoy the view around us. 

The above signboard read - Plant a tree on the grave of dead people, they might be re-born. 

And finally we reached the base camp. Here you will get fresh lime soda, tea, biscuits, chips. You can have some refreshments and then return to your place of origin. 

Yana Caves is a complete package with mesmerizing geography, an amazing history, and a thrilling trekking experience. Worth a visit especially during monsoons for photographers, trekkers, and spiritual enthusiasts as well. One should not miss this extraordinary spot while you are around Uttara Kannada district (Gokarna, Kumta, Murdeshwara and Honnavara). 

Overall an adventurous experience and I am super excited to tick this off from my bucket list😊. 

Gokarna – Part 1 - Explore offbeat places beyond beaches 

Gokarna - Part 2 - Street Walking : Photographer's Delight

Gokarna - Part 4 - Exploring the coastal town of Kumta